Landing Site Region

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 56th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 2, 2012).

This scene is from early spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars. These dunes are covered with a layer of seasonal carbon dioxide ice (dry ice).

This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows distinct bands of alternating tone and brightness within the "Murray Formation" on Mars.

Among the many discoveries by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since the mission was launched on Aug. 12, 2005, are seasonal flows on some steep slopes, possibly shallow seeps of salty water. Thi...

This image acquired on December 3, 2018 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a cross-section of a dune field. Dune shape depends on several factors, including the amount of sand present and ...

These collapse pits probably formed when lava erupted from the side of Arsia Mons, draining underground magma reservoirs. The resulting voids collapse due to the weight of the solid lava above them...

Shown here is a stereo pair of a well-preserved impact crater about 6 or 7 kilometers wide from rim to rim.

Artist's concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter approaching Mars.

Well-Preserved Crater with Central Peak in Chryse Planitia

A view from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 8, 2015, catches sight of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover passing through a valley called "Artist's Drive" on the lower slope of Mount Sharp.

This image shows dunes near the north pole of Mars. The north pole is surrounded by a vast "sea" of basaltic sand dunes, and the dunes imaged here are similar to barchan dunes that are commonly fo...

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen at the "Pahrump Hills" area of Gale Crater in this view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orb...

This image maps the traverse of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity from "Bradbury Landing" to "Yellowknife Bay," with an inset documenting a change in the ground's thermal properties with arrival at a dif...

The Cerberus Fossae are a group of troughs in the Cerberus region of Mars that run roughly parallel to one another. They formed due to extension of the crust in the region. Some of the troughs, suc...

This vertically exaggerated view shows scalloped depressions in a part of Mars where such textures prompted researchers to check for buried ice, using ground-penetrating radar aboard NASA's Mars Re...

The black speck circled in the lower left corner of this image is a cluster of recently formed craters spotted on Mars using a new machine-learning algorithm. This image was taken by the Context Ca...

This graphic depicts the relative shapes and distances from Mars for five active orbiter missions plus the planet's two natural satellites. It illustrates the potential for intersections of the spa...

This image shows the quadrangle where NASA's Curiosity rover landed, now called Yellowknife.

This image, taken with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, shows the transition between the "Murray Formation," in which layers are poorly expressed and difficult to tra...

Lighter colors represent higher elevation in this image of Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 mission. The oval indicates the landing ellipse, where the rover will be touc...

Workers roll one of two containers with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter equipment into the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Kennedy Space Center.

This animation shows NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flying over NASA's Curiosity (shown in pink) as the rover lands on the Red Planet. The video is slowed down as the orbiter approaches the lan...

Sand dunes such as those seen in this image have been observed to creep slowly across the surface of Mars through the action of the wind.

This movie begins with an animation (artist's rendering) of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft above Mars. The scene zooms into an "X-ray" view of the spacecraft, revealing the High Reso...

This HiRISE image shows a valley filled with an assortment of linear ridges. These ridges are often referred to as transverse aeolian ridges, or TAR, and they take a variety of forms.